Varied computing environments may exist with vastly different requirements for acquisition, communication and storage of data depending on particular requirements of specific situations. In particular, some computing environments may require acquisition and communication of large volumes and varieties of data definitions. Furthermore, the requirements of many computing environments may change and evolve over time. An illustrative example of a computing environment that requires the acquisition and communication of large volumes and varieties of data definitions with requirements that change and evolve over time may be a health care computing environment. Other examples in other fields also require the acquisition and communication of large volumes and varieties of data definitions with requirements that change and evolve over time.
For example, a health care computing environment may include a variety of medical monitoring and analysis devices that process physiological data and communicate the physiological data via a network. The physiological data may include subsets of physiological data depending upon the application. For example, subsets of physiological data may include heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, and many other subsets of physiological data. The medical devices may include one or more types of software, and the medical devices and software may be configured to operate upon a particular subset of physiological data. The particular subset of physiological data may be unique to a group of one or more medical devices. There may also be an overlap between particular subsets of physiological data that are processed by each group of one or more medical devices.
The design of each medical device, or any other machine performing health assessment, is dependent upon the particular subset or subsets of physiological data that the medical device or other machine processes and communicates. The design of the software residing on the medical devices is also dependent upon the subset or subsets of physiological data or clinical outcomes that the medical device processes and communicates.
Electronic medical systems encompass devices and other clinical knowledge bases. Therefore, they must be capable of taking on the traits of highly adaptive, interpretive, and complex systems that continually evolve. As medical knowledge deepens there are changes in how medicine and medical practices are described. This may include physiology captured by devices as well as clinical analysis. It may be important that a method for defining and communicating medical information is extensible and flexible. This is also true of any other evolving or adapting environment.
As a result of the complexity found in medical electronic systems and other complex systems, a substantial effort may be required to design, implement and maintain software that acquires and communicates physiological and/or other types of similar data. Over time the effort to design, implement and maintain this software is both cost and labor intensive. Additional substantial effort may be required when the software is developed to execute on a plurality of interoperating devices, with the plurality of devices operating upon unique and/or particular subsets of data. The software may then be required to operate on multiple subsets of data characterized by distinct data types and associated data definitions. Substantial effort may also be required where the data, including the data types and associated data definitions, may be subject to change and evolve over time. Substantial effort may also be required where the data, including the data types and associated data definitions differentiate from one device to the next due to targeted clinical use or level of user.
Software reliability may be critical in a variety of fields, but is particularly critical to providing adequate health care. Therefore, substantial efforts are required where software operates upon data within a health care environment. Lack of reliable software interoperability within a health care environment may interfere with providing adequate health care and may harm or even kill health care patients.
Needs exist for improved communications protocols for acquisition and communication of data between network elements.